The invention relates to a device for gently cleaning, sterilizing and drying large volumes of small parts. These parts can be, for example, parts of syringes or ampoules, thus parts which are primarily used in the medical field.
For carrying out these processes, different machines and methods are known which, however, have some disadvantages whether in the area of the methods or in the area of the machine design.
A known system consists of a mobile treatment container having a rotating inner basket into which the parts are placed. The basket is coarsely perforated similar to a washing machine for clothes. After the treatment is completed, the parts are transported in said treatment container to the consumer and handed over to the same. The disadvantage of this system is that the coarse perforation generates a poor fluid bed and therefore, no uniform treatment takes place due to the media flow flowing in an uncontrolled manner through the parts to be treated. Particularly disadvantageous is that it is possible that the media flow can even flow past the outside of the treatment basket and consequently the parts do not come into contact with the media at all and therefore are not treated.
A further known system consists of a rotating mobile treatment container having a screen plate or a fine-meshed screen, usually sintered, as support for the small parts. The media necessary for carrying out the treatment flow through said screen plate and generate a so-called fluid bed which effects the treatment. Upon completion of the treatment, as in the case of the aforementioned system, the parts are transported in said container to the consumer and handed over to the same. The disadvantage of this method is that the treatment container has to be rotated which is very complicated with respect to process engineering. All connections have to be designed to be rotatable and, in addition, the decoupling has to be carried out under sterile conditions so that the coupling to the consumer can be carried out again under sterile conditions. A further serious disadvantage is that the parts have to be “consumed” immediately, i.e. have to be handed over to the consumer immediately after the treatment. A temporary storage under sterile conditions is possible; however, if large volumes are involved and a temporary storage of the parts is necessary, a plurality of treatment containers has to be available. This results in high investment costs because such treatment containers are complex and have to be highly instrumented in order to cover the treatment requirements.
Also known are treatment containers which are not used as transport containers, but are permanently installed. After the treatment, the parts are placed mostly in movable transport containers and are stored therein under sterile conditions until they can be delivered to the consumer.
Such systems too have the disadvantage that the treatment container has to be rotated which is very complicated in terms of process engineering because all connections have to be designed to be rotatable.